Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CoVid Lockdown Exit Strategy For Karnataka PDF
CoVid Lockdown Exit Strategy For Karnataka PDF
On
Phased Exit Strategy After 21-days Lock Down
Submitted to
The Government of Karnataka
1|Page
The expert group constituted by the Government of Karnataka comprising of the
following members had several brainstorming sessions and created the strategy
with input from other external experts, especially from senior faculty and
researchers from IIM Bangalore.
2|Page
Preamble:
3|Page
Also declaring lockdown of a specific
industry for long period of time will result in
layoffs compounding the economic
problems.
4|Page
We just need to send a message to everyone that life is not going to be
normal for at least 6 months.
We believe there is no medical reason to extend the lock down beyond 21
days.
Our country of 1.3 billion people with limited social security, just 6%
employed by organised sector simply can’t sustain prolonged lock down to
prevent massive societal and economic disruption.
5|Page
We should keep the option of extended
lockdown as an ammunition in case of a
tsunami of patients hitting the nation in the
future, which is very unlikely looking at the
way government machinery is working.
6|Page
Recommendations:
7|Page
A.Recommendations for General Public:
1. The lock down will continue in localized identified hotspots for two
weeks.
2. Strict social distancing policy must be enforced even after the exit for
the next six weeks until 31st May 2020.
5. All Essential services to run as is now during the lock down period
7. All Gyms, Bars, Hotels, shopping malls, religious institutions, all places
of entertainment, movie theatres, social functions like marriages shall
remain closed until 30th April 2020 or further orders.
9. Any place where large number of people use common toilets should
be banned.
8|Page
11. There is enough scientific evidence to make wearing cloth masks in
public places mandatory. People may be encouraged to use three
layered cloth masks, handkerchiefs / dupattas to cover their nose and
mouth. All used material to be washed in soap and water, dried, ironed
and reused every day. Public should be warned against using
disposable surgical mask depriving the medical personnel of protective
gear to face COVID patients.
12. Air travel and interstate train journeys other than goods must continue
with lockdown for two more weeks until 30th April 2020. There is
strong possibility that some of the positive patients who landed in
airports would have acquired infections in the plane. WHO believes
that virus can spread inside the plane to passengers in adjacent rows.
Toilets in airports, planes, railway stations and trains are the chief
vector for viral spread because coronavirus thrives in a cold, moist
environment. It is impossible for travellers to use toilets without
touching door handle, taps or flush.
13. Eventually when the air and train travel get opened, till the pandemic
gets controlled Senior citizens should be discouraged from travelling.
14. Till the normalcy is attained, warning signs should be put up in all
public toilets to use it when it is absolutely required.
a. Grocery shops and all standalone shops which are not inside a
mall must be kept open from early morning till late night to
prevent hoarding, rush and follow social distancing. Gradually
consumption must resume to revive the economic engine.
9|Page
b. Fruit and vegetables to be sold in retail on a moving cart in
multiple locations instead of crowded vegetable markets.
17. Couriers supplying food and goods of all types should be given ID cards
and allowed to provide service. By servicing the needs of many
households at a time they can reduce people movement significantly.
18. Office ID and any KYC document should suffice for local travel for
essential work. If feasible E passes to be issued to all people in essential
services.
10 | P a g e
B. Recommendations for Offices and Educational
Institutions:
1. Lockdown should continue for all educational institutions and Tutorials
until 31st May 2020. They should, however, be encouraged to take online
classes for students. This experience of online education should be an
opportunity to lay the foundation for massive reforms in online education
at all levels.
11 | P a g e
D.Recommendations for Clinical care of CoVid 19
patients and Non-CoVid Patients
ii. Doctors above 60 years of age shall not be involved in frontline care of
patients
iii. ICU beds with piped oxygen, suction, ventilators and PPE and oxygen
supply for a month should be planned, in advance.
iv. Try and segregate moderate and severe patients to Government CoVid
hospitals that have piped oxygen& suction facilities and ICUs with
ventilators. Mildly symptomatic cases may be kept in other
government CoVid hospitals that do not have these facilities.
vi. Close to every large COVID hospital, hotel accommodation for health
workers, who are treating patients, should be made available to
protect their families.
vii. Rotate treating teams every week so that they get adequate rest.
12 | P a g e
viii. Ensure that PPE kits are procured and despatched to all designated
CoVid hospitals before lockdown ends.
ix. Karnataka has large number of garment industries which can stitch
PPEs in mass scale addressing the global shortage as well as creating
employment
i. Most of the district hospitals will not be able to cope with huge influx of
sick COVID patients. They have serious shortage of specialists trained to
manage large ICU, trained ICU nurses, paramedics ,infrastructure to
support to large number of patients on ventilators.
iii. Similarly, there are quite a few private hospitals which are well equipped
and willing to manage COVID patients.
iv. Ministry of health can utilise the services of medical college and private
hospitals by identifying them as COVID HOSPITAL, provide them with PPEs,
drugs, disposables and reimburse them for the infrastructure and salaries
for a month or two.
13 | P a g e
D.1.c. Out-patient Services
ii. Outside every hospital, treating COVID patients, fever clinics should be
established in a tent to follow social distancing.
i. All hospitals to start a Helpline for their patients. Depending on the needs
of patients, they may be advised to come to the hospital, if necessary, at
appointed time slots.
ii. As far as possible Tele Consultation services shall be used to treat patients.
iv. Protect the salaries of frontline health workers like doctors, nurses and
paramedics during the lockdown period and following the downturn.
14 | P a g e
E. CoVid 19 Testing
1. Procure sufficient PCR test kits and reagents form ICMR. Also place orders
for kits from State Government.
3. Use ICMR and GOI guidelines for testing suspected cases by PCR
5. Link labs to hospitals. Divide sate, districts and cities into zones and map
them to the nearest lab for PCR testing
6. Conduct online training for Rapid Antibody testing using available online
platforms
15 | P a g e
F. Recommendations for Quarantine :
1. Identify hotspots (reported even one CoVid 19 case) based on area pin
code and continue area wise lock down and containment measures to
prevent local transmission and lift the lock down at a later date.
3. The recent ICMR strategy for antibody testing using rapid kits can be
used for screening of subjects at hotspots, asymptomatic contacts and
further action taken as per the ICMR algorithm.
16 | P a g e
G. Recommendations for Transport
4. Public transports like buses should get back to usual schedule. Clear
rules to be framed for passenger entry and seating in non- A/c buses
and trains; in buses passengers should be seated and in alternate rows
only and one passenger per seat, allow only half of seating capacity.
5. No Metro train services until the 30th April 2020 since Metro is
airconditioned
7. Private owned cars with E passes can ply subject to following odd and
even numbers from 8 AM to 8 PM to restrict the people movement.
Lock down, complete and partial will give breathing time for the government
and the hospitals to prepare for early detection, isolation and treatment.
Ultimately Countries are judged not by the number of patients who got infected
but by the number of patients who survived.
These are just guidelines based on the current situation and knowledge. Authorities should
constantly monitor the developments at the ground level and make suitable amendments
to the guidelines. On 22nd April our group will review the COVID situation and come up
with the plans for the following 2 weeks.
17 | P a g e
The menace of surgical mask
Discarded face masks are piling up on Hong Kong's beaches and nature trails (Gary Stokes,
co-founder of marine conservation group OceansAsia, pictured in Soko Islands earlier this
month) – Daily Mail
18 | P a g e